Blackblade 17.0 - How Caelan Got His Groove Back
After a somewhat uneasy night's sleep, the group reconvened in the inn's common room in the morning to discuss their next plan. The mood was sober; their foes knew their location, and obviously outpowered them. A few ideas were bandied about, including going to the Hobgoblin Province, but everything seemed to be fundamentally pointless or too risky. Eventually, the group, looking to Caelan, decided that if there was nothing to be done at the moment regarding Lord Miro and his magic circles, then they should do something about their comrade's problem instead. Yomiel apparently possessed some measure of knowledge regarding how to go about this: he explained that they needed someone to cast Plane Shift to take them into the spirit realm, where they could find Caelan's soul and dispel the magic that was acting upon it. With some prompting, he explained that he had learned this from asking the Vizier, his boon from the Deck of Many Things. Raito deduced that a strong cleric would be needed to provide that spell, and that the strongest cleric in the land was undoubtedly the jushoku, the head of the church in Yeto. The jushoku resided in the High Temple, located in Shizuoka City; they would need to head there next. Relating all of this to Ridley through his Rings of Shared Sound, he agreed to meet up with them in Shizuoka, as both he and Vol had promised to help fix this problem for Caelan. Setting out, the group used the Rod of Emergency Teleport to travel north into Nara Province. Making their way into the castle city, Raito sent a letter to Masanori, telling him (between florid lines of prose depicting his moral victory over Mako) to quickly forward a note to Kenta, asking him to procure him an audience with the jushoku. Without waiting for any sort of reply, they slept overnight in the city and set out again. When they used the rod the next morning, they overshot their mark of Shizuoka City and found themselves deposited directly into the center of Shouhou River. Yomiel, having never been submerged in water before, began to flail and panic, while Ragoom, wearing heavy armour and wanting to test if he truly did not need to breathe, let himself sink to the bottom like a stone. Broken Tusk, the only person with any sort of swimming skill, dove after Ragoom while Raito cast Fly on himself. Taking hold of one end of the teleporting rod with Yomiel clutching to the other, Raito flew the pair of them swiftly to shore, nearly a mile away. Finding Ragoom cheerfully walking along the riverbed, Broken Tusk took Kalyanda, who had been in a sling at Ragoom's side, back up to the surface and left the cleric to his stroll. He then alternated his attention between the drakes and the other swimmers. Caelan and Traveler both managed to swim along the relatively calm waters easily enough. Kalyanda and Broken Tusk's Drake both clung to Traveler's back and played with the water, with Broken Tusk's Drake tentatively alternating from splashing at the surface and climbing up on Traveler, and Kalyanda quickly learning how to make big splashes with her wings, snickering when she managed to splash one of the swimmers or the other drake. Maroar, tightly clinging to Yomiel, poked and skimmed the surface of the water with his tail as his human was dragged along. Eventually, everyone made it safely to the shore. Tired from their swim, they nonetheless walked the rest of the day and spent their night in a small inn. They spent the next day walking, knowing that it was not far off and that they were more likely than not to overshoot their destination should they use the magic rod. Raito, knowing that the church sold scrolls to wealthy patrons, declared that their first plan should involve them going to the church and trying to buy the Plane Shift scrolls that Ragoom could then cast for them. They spent the night in a small inn a few hours outside of the city. Waking early, the group set out towards the city. Entering the outskirts, they found that the citizens were acting more oddly towards them than before: beyond dirty looks and sidelong nervous glances, they were being eyed with fright, suspicion and, most peculiarly, a sort of recognition. After catching sight of a few people whispering and running off in their wake, they realized that word of them had probably reached this city, and that they were probably likely to have a run-in with the police force. Making a hasty retreat, the group left the city to discuss their strategy. They waffled about how they would reach the High Temple, until Yomiel muttered that he didn't understand why they didn't all just use Disguise Self and move quickly. Broken Tusk, however, refused to leave Traveler behind. Using the spell Anthropomorphic Animal, he turned Traveler into a human-mastodon hybrid: an 8-foot tall elephant man preoccupied with the word "nope". Once in this form, he was able to use one of Yomiel's extracts to appear as a Yetoman, like the rest of them. Now in disguise, they hustled to the temple before their magic could wear off. Entering the imposing building some time later, they found a nearby miko. Raito informed her of his intention to purchase a pair of expensive scrolls, and she politely went to inform her superior. Worried that their spells would wear off shortly, the group waited anxiously. They were approached by an older Yetoman who had been kneeling at the shrine. He engaged them in some polite, yet leading, conversation, and it was quickly determined that he was in fact Ridley. At the end of their time limit, Ragoom, Broken Tusk, Caelan and Traveler took their leave of the temple, agreeing to meet up at the inn later. Yomiel, instead of leaving with them, drank another extract and turned invisible. Ridley, who said he still had plenty of time left on his spell, waited with Raito until a miko appeared to escort the two of them upstairs to an office. Inside, a man at a desk introduced himself as Sukikyo Atsushi; Raito gave himself a fake name, and spun a tale wherein he had been sent by his lord to purchase two scrolls of Plane Shift for an unstated purpose. The sukikyo was a bit hesitant to give out such a powerful spell to an unknown person for an unknown purpose, especially seeing as how Raito would not name the cleric who would be casting the spell for his lord. In the end though, money prevailed; Raito paid the cleric in full, passed the scrolls to Ridley, and left. Leaving the building, Ridley said that he would meet back up with them, Vol in tow, the next morning. When Raito asked why they weren't joining them directly, he explained that he was still trying to minimize the amount of time he spent with them to hopefully avoid being scried on, protecting Vol. Agreeing that this was sound, Raito left his company and wandered back towards the inn. As the rest of the group deeked through the streets of Shizuoka, moving as quickly as possible through alleys and sidestreets in an attempt to not be spotted, they caught sight of a company of fifteen hobgoblins, wearing what they presumed to be the late emperor's colours, marching drill down a street. They hid behind some buildings and weren't noticed by the soldiers, though Caelan could not stop staring at them, and was somewhat transfixed until they turned a corner and went out of sight. They managed to make it back to the inn without incident. Raito arrived much later than his companions, and Yomiel rejoined them later in the evening. While they sat in the inn, a couple of local men looked at them nervously and started to make their way to the exit. Broken Tusk stopped them and called them over. He attempted to put them at ease, but it seemed that they were on the edge of panicked running. When asked, they nervously explained that they were wanted by Lord Osamu Miro and Lord Mako Murakami, for an attempt on Mako's life; a large reward had been posted for turning in a group of foreign men travelling with a wealthy Yetoman and a large, strange animal with brown fur and a long nose. Raito, using his charm enhanced by the magic of the Knight card, convinced them that he and his companions were actually being maligned by the lords, and that they were only trying to stop them from sowing dischord and destruction across the land. Possibly convinced but definitely scared, the two left the inn, and the rest of the evening was quiet. The next morning, Ridley, Vol and Kirsikka arrived. The spell would only allow eight creatures to travel between the planes; Caelan had to stay behind if the mission was to be successful, and the drakes were far too numerous to be taken along. Broken Tusk asserted that Vol could not be left behind, and Ridley refused to "be left as a babysitter for a bunch of baby dragons". After some arguement, it was decided that everyone would travel to the spirit realm, leaving five of the six drakes and Kirsikka with Caelan (Maroar cried petulantly at being left, and Yomiel did not make much of an arguement against his demands). They linked hands, and Ragoom cast the spell that would take them to the spirit realm. The group found themselves standing in a seemingly endless flat snowscape. Powdery, semi-translucent snow drifted lazily down from a grey sky with no sun or moon, and the air was cold and sharp. Broken Tusk took on the form of a wind elemental in order to fly up and get a better view of the land, but from what he could see, the flat, frozen land stretched on for miles and miles. Based on Yomiel's knowledge of the plane and Broken Tusk's knowledge of geography, they deduced that the spell had indeed taken them to the spirit realm, but had moved them to the tundra of the Northlands. Frustrated at the distance they would have to now travel to get back to Yeto, where they had left Caelan, they debated the merits of attempting to cross over the mountains versus walking through Gaivoutna, past the Wall of the North, and through Hobgoblin Province. Particularly, they postulated that if they went through Hobgoblin Province, they might be able to find the magic circle there, and might be able to affect it differently from this vantage point. It was eventually decided that, due to a possibly strong spiritual presence in the ancient northern village and too many unknown variables in the hobgoblin lands, they would take the mountain pass. Using the Rod of Emergency Teleport, they travelled an indeterminate distance to the south-west and then began walking through the strange, snowy land. As they walked, they discovered that they didn't tire from the exertion, and that there appeared to be no day, night, or any other way to note the passage of time. The rod refused to function further though, so they continued travelling, waving the wand every couple hundred steps to see when it would recharge. On the horizon, they could see shapes begin to resolve that appeared to form a treeline. Strange movements, shapes and ephimerial figures could sometimes be seen out of the corner of the eye before vanishing into the snow. Suddenly, the ground underneath them began to shake. Everyone spread out, and a great mass of white earth surged upwards, throwing Raito back. A gigantic worm, shimmery blue-white in colour with a horrific mouth of teeth and mandibles, reared out and shrieked, a terrible sound heard by the soul rather than the ears. Cold mist poured from its maw, and it freezed the very air around it as it lunged towards Raito, piercing him brutally with its mandibles. Everyone engaged fully in the battle: Raito got back on his feet and tried to slash at the creature, but missed, Yomiel threw a flaming bomb at it, causing it to shriek out in pain, Vol wielded the Rod of Pacci, Ridley cast an strength-boosting spell on Raito, Broken Tusk shielded everyone from the damaging cold while Traveler charged, and Ragoom cast a spell that would redirect the creature's attention when the time called. Unable to extinguish the flames that burned its body, the worm reared up to strike at Raito again, causing Ragoom's spell to trigger. Instead of the Yetoman, the worm turned and sunk his mandibles deeply into Ragoom's torso. The brutal wound knocked him out almost instantly. Yomiel began to run towards him, but Ridley reached him first, applying a healing potion that, while did not return him to consciousness, did close his gaping wounds and leave him stable. Yomiel, Broken Tusk, Traveler, Vol and Raito all assaulted it again, devastating the creature. With another shriek, it turned and began to burrow its way underground again. Unwilling to let it escape lest it return, Traveler and Raito both attacked the fleeing worm. The sword and tusks pierced through its flame-weakened carapace, and with a wretched scream, it exploded into hundreds of thousands of icy fragments, spraying everyone with deadly shrapnel. Despite the brutality of the fight, everyone survived; Broken Tusk and the now-conscious Ragoom used their healing magic to restore everyone, and Yomiel postulated that this area will probably have a very warm winter this year. As this was occuring, a voice, heard by all, commented that "that was a particularly poor showing"; Raito got a strange look on his face and muttered something unintelligible before carrying on as though nothing had happened. Everyone was confused, but did not press the topic. The group walked on, keeping the forest to their right as they followed it towards the mountains in the distance. Eventually, the rod triggered again, placing them deep in a pass between the mountains. It was heavily forested here, though unlike anything any of them had seen before. The trees here were all very poignantly unique: short, tall, squat, oddly perfect, oddly twisted, with bark, needles, leaves and flowers never seen on mortal earth. No two trees were the same, and none looked like any species that they could recognize. Every once in a while, someone would spot a figure: a beautiful young woman, a short person, a faerie, but they would always duck away and disappear, and the group did not stop to bother with any of them, fearing the fey nearly as much as the fey appeared to fear them. Broken Tusk began to notice slight glowing essences around them, appearing like small flames or lights, that moved amongst the trees. As he studied them, he deduced that they were the souls of animals on the material plane; not all animals had souls strong enough to be seen, but every once in a while, you could glimpse a small moving glow that, when one focused, would resolve around it a shadowy outline of a bird, a rabbit, a bear. They happened upon a clearing. In its center was a squat stone structure, old and painstakingly crafted, fully resolved and distinct. Around it, on the ramparts and by the doors, were more of the glowing essences, much stronger and brighter than those thought to be animals. The group presumed them to be dwarves and, as they approached and stared at them, they could see vague outlines of dwarves standing about the building. Gathering around a pair of dwarves who appeared to be standing near a door, they determined that they could not be seen or heard by those on the mortal plane. Raito wondered aloud what would happen if one were to attack a soul; Broken Tusk would not permit any 'experimentation' of the sort. The voice from earlier spoke up, seconding Raito's opinion. Broken Tusk was very hesitant of the voice and tried to engage it in conversation; Ragoom was nervous of it. Raito mumbled something again, and the voice stated, "Not that I was ever made aware of," and "This is extremely annoying," before falling silent again. Pressing them on, Raito changed the subject again. They walked further through the forest, until the rod would work again. The next teleportation left them in what they believed to be the fields of either Saitama or Ibaraki. They walked through farmlands, passing by the souls of workers and buildings that ranged from barely visible shades to clearly distinct homes. Small brown creatures, looking almost like clay dolls with hollowed-out eyes and mouths, scuttled amongst the crops, bothering no one. A few times, they spotted people: a young girl who ran away when they tried to call to her, a man wandering about without an obvious aim. On the porch of an old, clearly-defined home, they found an old Yetoman sitting on a porch step, looking relatively content. Broken Tusk talked to him for a few moments; the man couldn't remember his name or how long he'd been there, but he knew that this house, his family's house, was important. He was fairly certain he was waiting for something, or someone, but honestly didn't know what; he was sure he'd know when it happened, or they came. Until then, he was just content to wait by his family house and enjoy the peace. Carrying on, they teleported, bringing them to the banks of the Shouhou River once again. Broken Tusk turned himself into a water elemental and dove into the waters, Ragoom plunged in and began walking, and Traveler began the long swim across. The others piled into a collapsable canoe that Ridley had apparently stashed at some point into one of his Bags of Holding. Ridley and Raito, looking at each other and nodding, said almost in unison "rope", and attempted to hitch Traveler up to pull the small boat. Broken Tusk, disapproving, removed the lead without comment, forcing those in the boat to paddle for themselves. As Broken Tusk swam through the water as an elemental, he heard a myriad of small voices call out to him in greeting. It was as if he was surrounded by many young children, asking him who he was and where he came from. He told them that he was from the mortal world, and they all agreed that none of them had been there, so it must be very far away, but everything eventually comes to the rivers, so it wasn't surprising that he was there now. The water seemed to be filled with an uncountable number of friendly and welcoming spirits, all recounting the tales of where they had come from, what they had seen, and all happy to hear the tales told by each other. Broken Tusk asked if any of them had seen anything strange, or if anything harmful had happened to any of them recently; they replied that yes, there was something strange moving through the river right now, but Broken Tusk assured them that that was just his friends. Beyond that, they could not recall anything of dire importance: a blocked river source far in the mountains that could have been weeks or hundreds of years ago, some pollution from the cities, a person who drowned. Broken Tusk listened to their chipper conversations as he swam across the river. Meanwhile, Ragoom, walking along the bottom, noticed a crayfish the size of a medium dog with four large pincers crawling along the riverbed. When the crayfish saw him, it said hello in a drawn-out, almost comical voice. Ragoom attempted to reply before remembering he couldn't really talk underwater. The crayfish left, though as Ragoom continued, he noticed that it returned with another one, and appeared to be gesturing towards him while communicating to the other in a complicated language involving the placement and clicking of its claws. By the time Ragoom reached the other side, he had drawn a crowd of the creatures, who appeared to be either amazed or confused by his presence, all "talking" excitedly amongst themselves. Those in the boat realized that they had been traveling for days, and had not once gotten tired or hungry. Deciding that caution was in order, they all had a large meal, despite not feeling the need to. Having forded the river, they saw the large spires of Shizuoka City in the distance and realized that they were not far from their destination. Hurrying along, they found the shadowy frame of the inn where they had left Caelan. Needing to get inside, they found that they could not open the door. Working all together, they managed to force the door open, apparently shocking the innkeeper and his wife inside. They piled in and upstairs, focusing hard to make out the shapes of the room and beings inside. They found Caelan sitting in a room while the five drakes cavorted about him. Broken Tusk's Drake had apparently made a pillow fort and was watching the others from a distance, Rayquaza was climbing about a dresser, Kalyanda was gnawing on a table leg, Bjarte was sleeping on Caelan's lap and Serrisa was napping in a sunbeam. More noticable, however, were the two faeries who hovered about Caelan, snickering to themselves. When the group entered the room, they both stopped, paused, and yelled out "They did it!" while pointing at the other. Those assembled looked at them sternly and they backed away, muttering; when they were ordered to undo their magic, they replied snarkily that they should do it themselves, but then giggled and got excited to watch. Raito cast Dispel Magic on the glowing essence that was Caelan's soul. Immediately, Caelan's eyes grew wide, and he began to scream, though the sound could not be heard on the spirit plane. The drakes, frightened, all scattered into the corners of the room, while the faeries laughed and laughed. Raito told them to get out of there, and the two flittered off, commenting to each other that that was hilarious and totally worth it. Wasting no time, the group went back outside to Traveler, held hands, and used the second scroll of Plane Shift. The temperature was suddenly very hot; barren rocks and sand surrounded them. Yomiel sighed and said that he knew where they were, though everyone present could tell immediately that the spell had thrown them into the Mitsurhym. Everyone except Ragoom was immediately overwhelmed with fatigue, as though they had not slept for weeks, and hadn't eaten properly either. They rested, then made their way out of the desert on the following day. Once into the plains of Asanon, they discovered that though they had been in the spirit realm for about four days, based on the uses of the rod, they had actually lost 11 days of time. Ridley told them that he might as well go to Riolythe, make an appearance, and rustle up some scrolls of Teleport, seeing as how that would be the fastest way back. Taking the Rod of Emergency Teleport, he left the rest of the group in a backwater inn, where they prepared to wait for a few days for his return. Category:Banishment of the Blackblades